Pousette-Dart in Venice

In spite of their pioneer role at the dawn of American
abstract Expressionism, in the early 1940s, the paintings of
Pousette-Dart differ radically from those of most of his contemporaries.

While many exponents of the New York School,
of which he was a founding member, along with Pollock, Mark
Rothko and Willem de Koonig, constantly inclined toward formal
simplification, Richard Pousette-Dart continued to accentuate,
in his works, the complexity of the visual discourse.
His
passion for psychology,the creation of myths,anthropology,
African and American tribal art, interests hardly shared by the
other abstract Expressionists, allows us to understand how he
considered art to be a process of growing elaboration and
keenness, both of thought and of sentiments.
For Pousette-
Dart, matter and abstract symbols can reveal the spiritual dimension
of reality. Thus, his paintings become a slow process
for revealing universal truths, atavistic symbols to be reproduced
on canvas, metaphors of being and its complexity.
Cockscomb Garden, Nocturnal Landscape, Golden Presence,
Lost on the threshold: these titles evoke a magical, transcendental
aspect. Matter seems to pulsate, to live inside the canvas.
The vast surfaces, completely pigmented by subtle layers
of colour, spread, splashed and applied with strong vehemence,
with extraordinary technical mastery, like stained glass
windows in old cathedrals: they radiate light in a sublime
metaphysical enchantment.
This is the first retrospective dedicated
to the American artist in Europe. On display, there are 47
paintings, covering the entire artistic production of Pousette-
Dart, placing in relief his stylistic and technical evolution.

«Richard Pousette-Dart»
Until the 20th of may
Collezione Peggy Guggenheim
Info tel. 041-2405404